Arsenal are one of only five clubs in world football to be valued over the $1 billion mark in the latest soccer rich list formulated by American publication Forbes.
Ranked fourth overall, the Gunners current value is estimated at $1.292 billion, with revenue of $364 million leaving an operating income of $98 million.
Manchester United top the list by some distance with a value of $2.235 billion, with Real Madrid ($1.877bn) and Barcelona ($1.307bn) making up the top three. German giants Bayern Munich ($1.235bn) sit just behind Arsenal in fifth.
Chelsea and Liverpool, seventh and eighth, are the only two other English clubs in the top ten, which also has space for AC Milan, Juventus and Schalke.
Forbes’ profile of the Gunners explains the current figures as such:
“Value only up 1% in local currency because of decline in broadcasting revenue as the Gunners only reached final 16 of Champions League in 2011. Commercial revenue increased $3.7 million. New sponsorhsips in 2012 with Indesit, Betsson and Carlsberg will boost revenue.”
The full Forbes list can be seen below…
A video explaining the list and how things have changed over the last twelve months can also be seen below.
TOP FOUR FOR THE WIN!!!! :c)
It’s as good as a trophy, coming 4th.
No reason why we can’t fork out some cash for proven established talent then
this is not a list of the biggest Transfer Kitties , Manchester Citeh still leads that ,1.Man Citeh
2.Anzhi machkhakalla
4.Malaga
3.Chelski
…
456.Portmouth
457.Arsenal
I tried looking for Portmouth, but I can’t find a club by that name… weird.
Knob
Well this is a list of transfer stuff makes interesting reading goes from 2006-2011 http://www.transferleague.co.uk/league-tables/2006-2011.html
Please direct yourself to Swiss Ramble’s blog on Arsenal’s finances, and especially its sponsorship deal (which iirc was flat-rate, but then shit happened and it suddenly became a bad idea)
As so many Arsenal fans have decided to measure Arsenal’s success by it’s value the minimum expectation should obviously therefore be to finish at least 2nd every year, behind Man Utd.
That means our stingy overpaid dimwit of a manager is failing every year, although you don’t need to look at the Forbes list to come to that conclusion.
Idiot. So Man City and Chelski being funded by billionaires would have no bearing on your ‘obvious’ analysis that Arsenal ‘should’ be 2nd? No one ‘should’ be anywhere. You don’t earn a place at the top table by being financially astute. Nor for being successful in the past for that matter, ask Liverpool.
What you do get is a secure future for the football club, free from oily roubles and dirham (for now at least).
Go play Football Manager until you’re in a position to appreciate that properly.
You can win the EPL on FM with Wolves on the first season… he’s going to be angrier at Arsenal at this rate.
Ah diddums. Arsenal’s two biggest shareholders are even richer. How about they put their hands in their pockets once in a while instead of stinging dumb fans like you and pocketing the profits.
@Adma
Thats currently not possible anymore with financial fair play rules with only club spending what they generate internally from the club. While I appreciate your opinion, I respectfully think its full of shit.
Adma, you’re doing what my children used to try in the supermarket when they were four years old. Mummy spends money on food. Mummy has money. Money buys sweets too. BUY ME SOME F*CKING SWEETS BITCH!!!!!!!
OK, so they weren’t quite that bad.
But you seem to be.
Hello straw man!
don’t be such a witless cunt.
Wenger is the main reason we are in such a great financial situation.
hand in your phone.
Arsenal don’t give dividends. Neither Kroenke nor Usmanov are on any form of salary
Kroenke does draw a salary. Read the accounts. Why are supporters so stupid and ill-informed, no wonder the club finds it easy to make mugs of them.
Adma got one correct for a change, Stan does get a salary for his job (what job?).
But they don’t pay a dividend (although Usmanov wanted to change that in return for loaning the club some money)..
Adma stick to what you know about our Club. fuck all you knob. I’d rather we were financially stable long term than win the odd trophy the disappear into oblivion ala Leeds, Liverpool and soon to follow Chelski and shitty. These clubs rely on sugar daddies to keep afloat. Once they fuck off back to their oil wells, what then. I’ll tell you what clubs like ours will still be stable and winning trophies long term. You build history not buy it you numpty.
Is that almost like a trophy ?
They would go to the key cutting shop to buy one of those trophies they you used to get at Sunday league presentations but that would break into that money and make the bank manager cry
future thinking bastard!
it’s a like a future trophy, a future trophy .
Did he say ‘Barren Munich’? I think that was a team from my fantasy league in ’07-08. Glad to see they’re still doing well.
Spuds mid table mediocrity as usual
Disappointing how Inter Milan is less valuable than the team with cocks on their shirt.
I wish Djourou were here to make the comments more interesting…
Johann says: “The p/ex ratios on some of the calculations are questionable. It’s open to debate whether this list is any use as an investment guide – as always, the market is the final arbiter of value, rather than an accounting firm after a quick piece of PR in the business press. Perhaps the real question is what drives the market, or, more intriguingly, who?”
He just told me that. Via Ray.
You just got Ray in trouble again.? You should treat him with more respect and call him a “Source close to Johann Djourou.” so that we don’t know who you mean, um, even though we already do, but we are all “stupid and ill-informed supporters” so I am sure we would all soon forget.
Should you not cover yourself by saying “Other Djourous are also available”
i suspect djourou is giving an in-depth interview and analysis to the financial times as we speak..
I thought Djourou was responsible for writing Swiss Ramble! He’s Swiss, it all makes sense now.
“We are in a situation where premia for these risks overshot. When you have this high volatility – like we had after Lehmann – you have an increase in the counterparty risk.”
(stolen from FT and altered very slightly)
Time now to translate all this to on-field success, Gunners
It’s not soccer, it’s Football. Flipping yanks, when will they learn…
Soon after you learn to give the whole soccer vs football thing a rest. Who the bloody h*** cares what anyone calls it, it’s the same sport that we all love, played by the team we all love so dearly.
COYGS
Soccer only came about because ‘association football’ was shortened, but it’s still football. It’s an English game, that’s what the English called it, so therefore the rest of the world should call it football. I’m pretty sure the Americans would scoff at us if we started calling one of their most popular sports (baseball) rounders…
Pedantic, we cant call it football so everyone should give it a rest. Our biggest sport is called football. How would you like it if someone came to England and had a sport only a small minority played and then demanded that it be called football. Everyone would get confused and annoyed. It has to have a different name in America.
Oh and since everyone always focuses on hating America, I’d just like to point out that its also called soccer in Canada and Australia.
Brandon, I have nothing against Americans, nor Australians or Canadians. It’s nothing personal and nor do I wish to argue. Putting it simply, football has been around longer than both American football and Aussie Rules football, so in my opinion alternative names should have been given to these alternative sports, rather than changing the name of the original. Just saying…
In the mid 19th century several versions of ‘football’ appeared at several different universities throughout England. Although the rules varied wildy, some allowing hands, some allowing tackling, etc.,they all shared a common name ‘football.’ With the onset of the first official soccer/football national tournament the FA Cup, those that played a version of football different than that sanctioned by the FA they were forced to name it something other than the game they played, also, football. So Association Football was birthed eventually evolving into the term soccer. Quit drubbing North Americans for a term born out of necessity. Not some… Read more »
We got the word “soccer” from you. Its still commonly used in Ireland, or at least by Ken Early and his associates. Simon Kuper wrote in his book, Soccer Men, “Throughout I have used the word soccer to describe the sport. Many fans – including many Americans – assume this is some cringeworthy American invention. It isn’t. Soccer is originally a British word, a contraction of association football, and until about 1970 it was the most common word for the game in Britain.” You guys made it up, and used it for a century as the main word. Its more… Read more »
In Britain we have used Soccer and Football interchangeably for over a century without anybody getting their knickers in a twist about the use either term. Only in the last few years, with increased coverage of Premier League football on the TV and internet has this become an issue with many people in England suddenly jumping on a bandwagon and declaring “silly foreigners who call the game soccer” to be somehow less knowledgeable and hence lesser fans than the good old English traditional supporter. It’s soccer snobbery, and it’s based on a fallacy. Pedantic and friends, who the fcuk do… Read more »
Suffixing Aussie Rules, Gaelic and Rugby with the word Football makes sense but I have always been intrigued about how a sport where almost nobody kicks the ball ever got to be called football. From my admittedly limited and pre-slumber views of it, it seems the only bloke who ever kicks the thing comes on specifically to do so after a touchdown and then trots straight back off again. Indeed, it’s not unheard of for high profile place kickers from other codes to have been imported for just this lucrative and untaxing role. Has there been a fundamental change in… Read more »
Haha, finally an good ol’ 18th Century rumble!
Fuck, that was a terrible introductory comment. Grammar fail..
Association Football –> Rugby Football –> American Football –> Mothafuckin’ football. Ahem.
Nah, it’s outdoor basketball with a ball after Lampard sat on it and without the hoops
I do remember that when I used to live in London that there was a show called “Soccer AM” and Gillet SOCCER Saturday. They still use those in England right as I was just there 2 weeks ago and wont you know, those shows were still there.
i love how man shitty are only 13th, even below the spuds! nasri must be choking on his cornflakes
Spending a billion pounds in two years on players brings zero value to a football club. It adds nothing. You can sink thirty billion into players if you want, and in and of itself it won’t get you above your 13th position. If you sell some of your players for larger sums than you paid for them then you would add some value to your club, but it wouldn’t be much, and how many other teams will pay more than you did, considering you are paying silly money. The only way those Fairy Godfathers can add true value to their… Read more »
It’s mainly due to all of Man U’s commercial success.
Isn’t it interesting that the highest portion of our revenue is match day. No wonder they keep increasing ticket prices. See, we’re all doing our part to keep Arsenal in the top 4
we earn more than any other club in the perm for match day income. but I think the reason it represents so much of our income graphically is due to the currently underdeveloped commercial and sponsorship sides of our business. both of these will strenghten over the newt few years. whereas I imagine barcelona is close to their full potential, we have yet to realise ours. I’d say we’ll be comfotably 3rd in 2 seasons.
Very true. I read the very long, thorough and eye opening report on Arsenal’s finances a while back on Swiss Ramble and they were of the opinion that once we get to renegotiate our sponsorship deals we’ll have a lot more income from that.
Now if we can win some trophies & renegotiate (I think it was in 2013 or 2014 we get to) sponsorship deals we can overtake Barcelona (we’re really not far behind them thanks to their mountains of debt).
Their mountains of debt are magic mountains. If you are Barca you look at a Bank Manager in downtown Barcelona with your big sad brown eyes (like in Lady and the Tramp) and he wipes your debt off the slate and asks you if you would like some more money to “buy us another great player”. It will take many years of improving commercial income before we can compete with clubs that get free money given to them. By which time Roman will have returned to Russia and four mega-rich Russian clubs will be making the CL and Europa semi-finals… Read more »
So wait. Only 1 super good team in Russia and a few alright teams and they get TV in Australia yet the domestic A-League cant get shit! WTF
Patiently waiting for us to re-negotiate our sponsorship deals. Would easily double our commercial income…..and boost that “War Chest”.
Building of the emirates contributed to our drop , once we start winning trophies again i’m sure we’d pay off our debt and leap the catalans.
Interesting in that video about the German teams looking at a 50% increase in TV revenue.
I know people will look at this and think ‘oh why don’t we spend more?’ but seriously just look at Liverpool, that’s why.
Our financials are going to be interesting over the next few years. We have been very poor in terms of commercial revenue but that is slowly changing for the better.
Looks about right, Spurs being half the club that Arsenal is
How very DARE you!!!!!
those cunts arent even 10%
😀
So happy to have read the article, am proud to be an Arsenal fan.
Would be interesting to have a comparison of arsenal financially pre wenger and know in relation to other teams, other than in real terms as obviously money in football on the whole has went up hugely
It would be interesting but the comparison wouldn’t be reliable as different leagues had cash injections at different time. No question about it though the mixture of Wenger and the club management makes Arsenal one of the more valuable club in the world.
Also I am unsure of how they factor in debt to the valuation if anyone could help out?
Johann! We need you!
Isn’t it depressing that football has come to this: who got the biggest turnover or benefactor with the deepest pockets? Remember the brilliant days when a crappy little club like Derby could actually win the league? Or Nottingham Forest could win the European Cup twice? Right throughout Europe the game has just degenerated into global big business with footballs and grass. “My spending power is greater, so I win the trophies”. Boring. Where’s the fantasy? Where’s the “It could be us next season”? It’s no coincidence that Man United have dominated English football just after the money-making Premier League was… Read more »
Europeans (and probably football fans in general) regularly make fun of the way American sports are run, with the drafting of players and salary caps, etc. But it certainly does make it more interesting and balanced. You never know who is going to win the NFL, but you could have guessed with reasonable certainty at the beginning of this football season that either ManU or ManCity (or maybe Chelsea if all of their stars somehow aligned) would win the Premiership. Moreover, whoever wins the Super Bowl this year is almost certainly not going to win it again next year. I’d… Read more »
too right
the *real* sense of “this could be our season” has been replaced by the corporate-friendly, sky-sponsored version – “ooh look at lovely little swansea/blackpool/reading next season/whoever aren’t they doing well, they’ve got 20 points in October” etc etc – patronising bullshit that does nothing to threaten the established order of things but tries to give the appearance of the unexpected.
bah
So true, I loved the pre ” Skyball ” football, the end of the mugsmashers supremacy meant there were 6+ teams scrapping it out for the title, so exciting. Now it feels like positions 1 & 2 are pre booked for the mancs to have their annual bitch fight, and the rest can fight che£$ki for 3rd. Bit of a shame, but it makes 3rd spot so much more of an acheivement, our “Primark” team beat up the £oadsamoney boys from the Kings Road. The pundits said at the start it was a straight fight between the mancs, and so… Read more »
All this will achieve, is getting Hill-Wood to increase the Claret Reserve and order up another round of liquid lunches with The Daily Star.
If it might induce Wenger and Hill-Wood to realise that the purpose of the Club is to win football matches and win Trophies, then it might serve some purpose.
Woe to complancy ! Oh to see a team and a Manager, who fight for the Red and White !
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We were 3rd last year, over taken by Barca who have grown 32% whereas we only grew 8%. Milan not far behind.
Goes to show on field success ultimately defines off field success. Must. Not. Regress.
If I’m not mistaken, Barca sold sponsorship on their shirts for the first time ever this season to the Qatar Foundation. I think that would account for a large part of their 32% jump.
Yes sir. Barcelona and their altruistic “no shirt sponsorship” pledge had to be abandoned due to their mountain of debt. Sell out your ideals so you can keep winning and buying back Cesc when they didn’t need him. But we helped them out by accepting a lowball insulting offer so in a sense we helped Barcelona’s debt.
It’s nice to be financially sound, but how much more would we be worth if we spent some of it on quality players and win the PL, CL or even the FA Cup
I dont get one thing with people. Sure its an unfair playing field with the oil money and everything….but really….why are we complaining…. i want my team to win…. it doesnt matter if they dont spend anything the season before ala the invincibles or they splash as much city do……why does one need an economics diploma to support a team they passionately love….